How did yours perform Lou?

The Qantas guys who flew it said it performed like no other.
Particularly on repositioning flights.  

It seems all the SP's have some kind of story behind them.
These two SP's were painted in an Australia Asia livery that didn't feature an Australian flag or Kangaroo anywhere. The company was formed so they could fly to Taiwan without upsetting China. JAL and BA also played this game.

What were the TWA machines powered with?

 

Cappy,

I don't remember what version of the P&W JT9D was installed, but whenever we could we would use de-rated thrust to prolong engine life so I never did a full power takeoff. Also, I only flew the SP on some short legs and minimum fuel so the plane was light.

The 747-100 on the other hand out of say Athens fully loaded was marginal at best on a hot day. 

I love the size of the tail rotor on the Russian chopper. 

Lou

PIBOT.... what next!

BTW, the PIBOT was way off the centerline!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CGEaOg0l_KA

LOU wrote on Sep 24^th, 2014 at 7:18pm:


I heard that stuff, i think its weird. Why change pilots to robot? 2 men in the cockpit have responsibility for a hundred pax - thats normal. They all of a same kind, - people. I dont understand practical interest of that. Its cool as "just noodling around with robots" but i never fly with this kind of pilot. Its like its already too much of automotion  in the cockpit, and they want to add more.

P.S. unfortunately im not a frequent visitor now - pretty busy lately. But my best wishes to all

Cappy wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2014 at 3:57am:


Cappy - thats not a dutch roll on video

Here is russian news episode about this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNrrDTBMLd8
That was Tu - 154 owned by army, and she sat on the ground for quite a long time. some say almost 10 years, some say about 6 years. Then pilots got the order to ferry it to Samara (600km from Moscow where it all took place) with only a crew onboard. They took off only to understand that plane uncontrollable. Aelerons and the rudder moves, but who knows how and by what law They used diffrential thrust to control bank angle. They landed from 2 attempt. Pretty hard landing, plane jumped several times, but crew was alright.

This is teh 3rd part of that vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L6ZXhXyVNU

There is a LOT of "F" words in that vids, i only can guess what poor CVR heard that day ))

I tried to pull some info from the MAK (russian NTSB), but since that plane was owned by army - no info on that.


As for me - unfortunately i cant fly anymore. A year ago i logged 1 hour of touch and go's in 2 days - i was happy! But then i was busy, winter passed and last spring guys crashed. They was at about 600 feet above the field in a BRM Aero NG4, and Pilot did high banked turn pulling too much G's. They stalled and crashed. Pilot and a tourist guy - both killed. Since then - No flights here. One day clouds will disapear, and i'll fly again! We have new airfield opened last summer, and they got Auto-gyros(who knows how that thing flies!!!) and some delta wing trikes. I'll get there as soon as i have time) I'd preffer light planes, but not much of a choice here now. And we got a coooold winters, and that stuff got an open cockpits!!! So if they'll dont get normal planes - probably im grounded till next spring

I realized that whatever we do - we still guests in the sky. Behave well - there will be a pleasure to spend time there. Behave bad - there will be a severe punishment.

I fly in sim, but for the last year, in light aircrafts only. Learning the basics of flight I couldnt do a stabilized approach in airliner, first time i felt how it should be, - that was in real plane! After that it started to happen in sim)

I surely miss heavy jets, and i'll get my 707, 727 into the air soon But for now its fun to learn how to fly turns, fly lazy 8s, chandelles,... how to plan approach and landing. That i do in light planes

There is one pilot here, who said to me a while ago that best way to get perfect flying skills - is to fly a glider! That was 2 years ago. Only now i really starting to realize what he meant All that energy management, coordinated flight, smoothnes of control inputs, clearly realizing what and how you want to do in the plane)

Kind of a sad, but beautiful story...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We7qdE4pMtk&feature=youtu.be

Sad, but they have had long and distinguished careers.

Be a good resource for serious cockpit builders though.